DAO DE JING

Translated byKeping Wang

These words, written 2500 years ago by Lao Zi resemble Socrates' account of his own quest in Plato's Apology. Ancient philosophy, both in China and in Greece, places self-knowledge as the center of the search for wisdom. Contemporary philosophers are often misled about this way of thinking, because the self has been detached from external things and separated from nature and society. The Dao De Jing exists on the border between poetry and philosophy, embracing both Mythos and Logos. Its poetic form can stand alone, but it is enriched when its timeless ideas are analyzed and explained through careful scholarship. This oral interpretation of the poem, read by Albert Anderson, is designed to accompany Keping Wang's book The Classic of the Dao: A New Investigation (Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1998).